Joe's Family Reunion Weekend

Whew! Did we have one busy weekend! Joe's dad invited his siblings and all their kids down for a mini Rupert reunion. I think about 30 people ended up coming from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and McKinney, TX. Ron made WAY too much food (as usual) and we gorged ourselves all weekend on fajitas, ribs, sandwhiches, cookies, artichokes, and more cookies.

Millie G is just plain exhausted from two days of being away from home and not really napping much. She crashed out at about 8:00 Saturday night and slept until 6:15! She's down for the night now as well and I'm hoping to get another 10 hour night! I ended up taking the Baby Bjorn today so that I wouldn't have to hold her on one shoulder (I'm way too old to do that for long) and she loved being carried around most the day.

The only thing I regret is not getting any still photographs of Joe's family. He shot lots of video though, so he will have some funny stuff to look back on. It's cool that Joe has so many cousins his age to hang out with and reminisce with.

Here are some pics I snapped of Millie as we were getting ready to go this morning.

I tried to get her interested in a Teddy, but nope, not so much



I just had to take a pic of this cute little sundress



Then I started taking too many pictures...she's getting grumpier by the second




Now, I have spent way too much time messing with settings on my camera and not enough time with her. The result....

Some Weekend Stuff

Over the weekend, we visited at Justin's house to celebrate the May B-Days. Here are some pics:

Granny with Amelia and Aunt Jen with Kate

Amelia Loved Sleeping on Aunt Michelle!

Brody decided to dance for Joe.

A Big Hug for Pappa John

Customer Service Still Exists

I was actually rendered speechless earlier today by some amazing customer service, so I wanted to share the short version of the story:

We bought a relatively expensive matress in Jan 2007 from The RoomStore. Well, needless to say, it's already very uncomfortable because there are two "body indentions" where Joe and I lay. So, I dug up the warranty information and found it had a 10 year warranty. Well, being the pessimist that I am, I really didn't expect to get a response when I called the store.

Within a week, they had mailed me a claim form, received it, and sent out a "bedding inspector" yesterday. Today we got a call saying that they found that our matress has a manufacturing defect and that we could come into the store and pick out a new matress that is the same price!! This is totally NOT what I expected, but we are VERY happy. Now, maybe we can actually sleep and not wake up with hitches in our backs.

Our Child Is Adam Lambert

So...we were watching American Idol last night and Adam Lambert's parents were answering the question of "Where do you think Adam got his voice?". His dad said something along the lines that he didn't sleep through the night until he was 18 months old and screamed for hours on end! Well, if that's any indication, I think we're raising the Next American Idol :) We had two really good nights last week of 9 hours through the night. She spoiled us with that and hasn't slept more than 4 the last several. On the other hand, she has been fairly good during the day eating what she should and going down for her naps. I guess I should take what I can get. I keep waiting for that magic day when she suddenly sleeps 7-8 hours at night and keeps doing it :)

This pic is from Cheryl's (Joe's mom, aka Nanna) retirement party we attended at her school. There were so many people there, including the lady the school is named after (how cool is that?)! They all were oooing and awwwing over Amelia and recognized her right away. I guess there has been some circulation of her pics and possibly even a mandatory staff meeting at some point announcing her to everyone :P Congrats on your retirement Nanna!

2 Month Check-up

Amelia had her 2 month checkup (and first round of immunizations) yesterday. She weighed 11.6 lbs (75% percentile), was 22.5 inches long (55% percentile), and her head was 38 cm around (30% percentile). She did well with the shots and only cried for a few minutes after they were given. The nurses were really fast :)

We talked to the Dr. about her eating issues and explained all the various things we've tried (different formulas, crib wedge, etc.). He couldn't quite determine if her problem is a little bit of reflux or if it's an actual milk allergy. He did a test for trace blood in her poop and it showed up very very very faintly positive. However, she also has quite a butt rash right now and he said that could make the test show positive. He gave us samples of a hypoallergenic formula called Nutragimen (which costs about $25 for a SMALL can...so about $50 a week for her). We were going to try it starting next week to see if it helps but then.....

She's been MUCH better the last 24 hours. She has eaten 5-6 oz. at every feeding, slept through the night, taken her naps during the day, and has not cried very much at all. So, you ask, what is making her feel so much better? Wait for it.... Wal-mart brand formula! We ran out of formula before the office visit yesterday, so we decided to try a small can that we already had of the Wal-mart brand for just one bottle until we could talk to the doctor. Well, turns out, she loves the stuff. She's eaten all that we've made for her (no fussing at the nipple), is pooping normally, and hasn't been fussy. Now, this could be because she isn't feeling well from the shots yesterday, or we might have found a solution (and much better that it's Wal-mart brand than that expensive hypoallergenic stuff). We're going to keep trying it over the weekend and see what happens! Cross you fingers!